CHAPTER II 



The Most Primitive Forms of Life 



THE VIRUS "re-forms" ITS STRUCTURE 



The Viruses are considered to be the most primitive 

 forms of living matter known today. These viruses are 

 essentially protein molecules with an unusually highly 

 developed ability to synthesize their own structure 

 from proper surroundings. Since amino acid polymers 

 (proteins) are not extremely stable substances it is evi- 

 dent that, of the various intermediate precursors of 

 protein-like molecules which may have developed on a 

 chance basis during the course of time, only those pos- 

 sessing the property of re-forming their particular 

 structure under the relatively widest latitude of condi- 

 tions had a chance of persisting. 



One encounters here at this very early stage of de- 

 velopment of living matter the principal determinant 

 of evolution, namely, probability of survival. Through- 

 out this book, there will be discussions of just how this 

 determinant has been responsible for the fact that 

 some portions of matter have assumed ever more com- 



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